An Ocean County man today admitted possessing thousands of explicit images and videos of minors, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Honig, Andrew Ramey, 34, of Brick pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of possession of explicit images of minors.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From March 13, 2020, through June 8, 2020, Ramey downloaded and shared material containing explicit images of minors via the BitTorrent Network, a publicly available online peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network of linked computers.
Users must download P2P software, which is widely available for free on the Internet.
The software allows the user to place files into a designated “shared” folder on their hard drive, from which other BitTorrent users can then download those files directly to the “shared” folders of their own computers. Users can then search, select, and directly download those files.
Law enforcement used investigative software to access the BitTorrent Network and downloaded video files containing explicit images of minors from a device or devices assigned to an IP address at Ramey’s residence.
On November 13, 2020, law enforcement searched Ramey’s residence and seized mobile phones belonging to Ramey.
Analysis revealed the phones contained thousands of explicit images and videos of minors, as well as BitTorrent software.
In a prior federal prosecution in 2018, Ramey was convicted of one count of possession of explicit images of minors in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Sentencing is scheduled for April 12, 2022.